Christmas in February!

Ok, not really, but thats what you get when I don't have access to my Christmas pictures all January.



First of many Christmas related functions... Torii tree lighting, complete with bubble blowers, brass quartet, cookies, and Santa visit via firetruck.






Coryn was super obsessed with Santa this year, at every event he was the first in Santa's lap, wanting to run across the road just to be the first to say hi. He really wanted his Star Wars Legos.




This year he had the joy of sitting with a friend from school as well, Savina.




The second event was the 505th party, they had fun dancing and playing in the soap bubble snow they used for pictures. My camera died so I was only able to get pics of them in this 'be an elf' board... too cute.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

While we were in China, Mom and Dad were watching the kids. When we got back I got to spend some time with them before they left. We went up to Okuma and climbed Hiji (go Mom!)


Visited the giant Okinawan Rail (bird) observation at Hedo Point.

And Ryukyu Mura to name a few... here we got to dance with the old lady balancing a giant sake bottle on her head.
Look! Dad's dancing! and smiling! Is he having fun? Is he laughing about how much taller he is? or is he enjoying watching my mom swim her way through a gaggle of school kids?

September... yeah, I know

Lots of things happened in September, and now I'm getting around to telling you all about it... Carter discovered puddles

It was the last night of Obon in Okinawa which meant the last night to experience late night Eisa performances... which for the Okinawans is basically a party to wish the visiting spirits of their ancestors a safe journey back to the land of the dead.

We went to the aquarium, we'll miss it when we leave...

everyone always enjoys the touching pool...

There's always something new there too... like volunteer scuba divers cleaning the tank and posing for pictures :)

AmericaFest (p1)

so it rained... I mean, it monsooned for about 20-30 minutes just as we were arriving. this is a shot from us in the hanger we reached after that first 20 minute time period during which we were trapped under the baggage check tent, which didn't do us much good since the wind blew the rain under as well... you know, the kind of downpour where about two minutes into it the fields are swamps and the gutters are rivers... our torsos stayed somewhat dry thanks to the raincoats, but everything else was drenched.

The kids got to get in a variety of the showcased planes, this is the AF equivalence of a blackhawk...

this is a bigger one, the kind that they move troops around in. Coryn tells me he wants to be a pilot.
look at the huge crowd! no seriously, at this point in the day I think this is the entire group of people that braved the onslaught of rain and was still at the festivus when Melinda Doolittle of American Idol fame performed.

the crowd tripled at least by the time Gary Senise and the Lt. Dan Band... they're pretty dang good too! We didn't stay too long after they started, it was late, getting dark and cold, and the kids were tired.

Okinawa World: etc.

aw, they make such cute shisa! too bad I couldn't get them at the same time...

roar!

there's a little animal display on the way to the snake show, its a mongoose! I think...

snake show... they showcased this python or boa for photo ops, Coryn said no...

but Carter was up for it, those things sure are strong! I think Carter was thinking "what are you and why are you hugging me so hard?"

MonaKids

Monakids... giant indoor playground, akin to McD's play area but so much better.

Coryn's so happy to be here, he ran around the whole time on his own, only coming to me for refreshments.

Carter absolutely adores the ball pits... and who would have guessed? after all, it was his first word, and thats the whole point, throw the balls, jump in the balls, lay in the balls.
Coryn was even so brave as to try the tight rope! a never before attempted piece, Carter also enjoyed it... in a different sense.
That was followed by a lesson in Japanese calligraphy. very informative, and the kids had some fun too! Carter wandered around with a black mouth for a bit.

Random Pics

ooo, what can I play with up here?

Where'd they all go?

petting the Shisa... it is a dog after all, and those are his favorite.
random photo op at the dream center, complete with chairs.

Spring Break! (pt. 2)

On the 8th we took another tour, this time to the butterfly park and Neo Park which is a research center for international species conservation. I forgot to check the battery on my camera so I didn't get too many shots, but I plan on going back with Jackson sometime. It was rainy this morning as well, but finished by the time we got there.

First stop was the butterfly park. These two pictures sum it up... slight apprehension from Coryn,

grabby grabby from Carter.

Then it was on to Neo Park The first thing you see when you walk in the main entrance is this bird extravaganza, flamingos and whatever else you see in the back there... you can buy food for them, they're very tame, and they scared a little girl who was holding a bag of food but was too scared to give the food to the birds. They have lots of fun animals there, giant Amazon River fish, lemurs, llamas, and a petting zoo comprised mostly of... pets. Dogs, hampsters, rabbits, pigs. But we had to practically run through it because we only got an hour there!

They also have some great plants, a giant tree that looks like a mix between a banana tree and a fan palm from Madagascar called Traveler's Palm but its actually in the same family as Bird of Paradise which explains why the flowers look like a white version of the Bird of Paradise. This blue flower is the one we were supposed to look for at the Botanical Gardens, its a Jade Vine.

Spring Break!

Ok, so it wasn't for us, but it did throw me off all week seeing the school kids every day. I see this face fairly often from Carter these days. His "I want to play with that!" face.

On the 6th we went to the Botanical Gardens (again, yes) on a tour to pick potatoes... I dressed Carter appropriately except for galoshes, I need to get some for him! The lady who was giving the tour took photos and was nice enough to send me them.

Coryn had a ton of fun, really liked being a farmer and found the tiniest potatoes! We went with red potatoes since I like them and know a good recipe (thanks mom!) but they had white and even black potatoes up for grabs.

I had been raining some the day before and that morning so it was nice and squishy orange mud, you can't really tell how orange in the pictures. This was kind of funny to me since I grew up in Idaho and this was the first time I ever harvested potatoes... Japan of all places, and not the sweet kind. :)

Of course, after the potato picking and clothes changing, we had some free time to spend wandering the gardens, had to feed the fish again, and we were supposed to go look at a special flower that was just about to finish blooming but we didn't get there (check out the next post). We opted for feeding the goats and finding flower hats instead. This giant yellow flower grows on a tree and is almost done blooming too.

Tonight

I know I have a little catching up to do, but I wanted to write about tonight since it is fresh in my mind and I have no pictures to share. It was a busy but beautiful day, odds and ends running this morning, cleaning the house up a bit, babysitting for 4 hours, and the deployed spouses dinner. As a treat I thought I'd take the kids and try to see the Ginowan fireworks from Sunabe seawall (um, sort of like looking across a bay?) We walked along the seawall for a bit, listening to the waves crash and observing Saturday night life in a popular section of town for moderate night life (restaurants open til 2, moderate drinking later in the evening, night divers, families out for walks). Had a passing conversation in Japanese about the fireworks and the time, had Coryn walk along the top of the seawall, and found ourselves a seat along it. While we waited for the show to start, we talked about stars, divers (its kind of funny watching lights below the water), blinking lights on buildings, and more. Then the fireworks started and it was a decent show; close enough that the kids were entranced, at least until the night divers started to exit the water. Carter tried to throw his binky in the water, and a nice American boy went and got it for us. There were a couple of times we thought the show was over and started to leave, the Japanese don't feel the need to have a constant barrage of blinking lights to keep the audience's attention. Then we had a nice conversation with the family the boy that helped us belonged to and we went on our way. All evenings should end this well!

Nakijin Castle

Entrance to Nakijin Castle Ruins... on either side of the 'door' are little sentry rooms with two tall skinny windows each (probably for archers). This is one of the World Cultural Heritage sites, I believe the tour guide said there were nine of them. My favorite castle ruins so far, it is big, beautiful, has great vantage points, and doesn't have too many stairs.

Here is the highest ground in the ruins, for the main quarters. It is surrounded by a moat-type ditch (thus the bridge).

Homes of the royal advisors...

like I said... great view!
Coryn apparently lives right there... he must have been Ryukyu royalty in a past life... :)

International Orchid Festival 2

You may have hear that the world of orchids is very intense, and its true, whether it be coaxing the flowers to grow and bloom perfectly or the search for rare finds in the wild, the fact that there is a black market for orchids is proof alone that many love this sport perhaps a little too much. I couldn't pay full attention to what I was looking at while entertaining the kids, so I didn't get to see all they had displayed nor did I know until I got home what I accidentally captured. Competition extends beyond showing a potted plant or cut flowers to include commercial and themed displays (commercial I'm assuming to be what you would see in a store window). That being said... here are a few winners.

One of the placed displays... couldn't tell you what place, but it has a ribbon.

First place cut flowers.

First place potted.

Grand Champion I believe.

Not sure about this one.... might have been top of the 'hanging' flowers... note how its hung from the ceiling.